Saturday, October 13, 2012

Welding weeks 1-7

Welding is going rather well and we are nearing midterms rather quickly. I
have mastered Arc Welding in the flat position and have finished with the vertical. I am now struggling with the overhead position and will eventually go to a bend test. I will have pictures of my projects up in a few days as my phone
is charging (stupid battery life).

Welding test one consisted of this attached image:

It has 2 triangles and one base plate. The main issue that I had on this one
was the staggered welds on the inner side of the first triangle. Staggered
welds are measured from the middle of the first run to the middle of the
second. Another way to look at it is that you weld 2 inches skip 2 inches and
weld 2 inches. The main issue is that using any oxyacetylene torch to hand cut
materials is not for those who have shaky hands. I spent forever on the
grinding wheel to get my parts to resemble a triangle again.

Our second test was even more insidious with hidden lines and upside down
triangles. Some people misread the blue print and welded on the wrong side due
to the drawing design. Which tipped me off to look at the drawing again as some people
were carbon arcing their plates to remove their welds.

Our last test was to build a 6"x 6" box out of 1/4 inch steel. This threw everyone off as we had to account for the thickness of the material to achieve the 6 inches on both sides. Tacking the plates was also an issue as evertime you tacked a side you had to square it as well. My box turned out fairly well but was a little off square.

I have some blueprints at school and will bring them home as the
opportunity presents itself. I am having a lot of fun welding regardless of the
cursing at welding in a overhead position.

12 comments:

I'm happy to hear you're have fun welding. It's such a great skill to have. Be careful to not get burnt. My son the 2nd week of school went to the sink to wash his hands, and while washing another student put a hot weld in a safe area (where no welds were suppose to be)and when my son turned around this hot weld landed on his arm. He had a large 2nd degree burn on the entire inside of his arm. May I suggest that you carry a product called silver (first aid item) this will help if you ever get burned (it will radically reduce your scar and help with the burn). Will you be state certified testing for each license or will you test for all at the end of your schooling? Continue with the good work, I look forward to hearing about the next stages of your training.Enjoy!

One of the things that our instructor stated is that you are going to get burned, regardless of how careful you are. I have had sparks burn me on at least every body part more than once. Thanks for the tip on silver, I will have to try the Silver Sulfadiazine Cream as the burn gel I have is not doing anything for me. When I finish school I will have a certificate in Advance Welding along with the BBA I already have. Certifications are left up to whomever employs me, that is, each shop has its own certifications and they do not transfer from shop to shop. Thanks for stopping by!

I had some of the same issues. Turned out I needed "cheater" lenses inside my hood. I think I have 1.5 magnification installed. It has helped tremendously as I can now see the molten pool now. Might want to give those a go if you are still having issues. Thanks for stopping in!

How did the midterms go? I hope you already got the technique down in overhead welding. It is the most difficult technique, you know, requiring balance, strength, and practice to lock the joints securely. The key here is to be patient. This usually takes a couple of hours so, it is important you are comfortable despite the tricky positions.

First of all sorry for the late response. Midterms went fairly well, I suffer from test anxiety (more so than most people) so my grades took a hit because of that (next time I will take my meds for it). I am averaging a 3.3 for overall classes and hope to have it up to a 3.6 before classes let out. Right now we are doing AWS bend tests with a root opening of 1/8 inch and a bevel angle of 37 1/2 with an 1/8 inch landing. The teacher uses this for all of the welding positions.

Studies have shown that even if a person can make interstate calls without charge, he or she will be more inclined to call a business usin Business Phone Service. It implies a level of stability and reliability.